Kuwait budget surplus surges on high oil income

With a native population of 1.2 million in addition to 2.6 million foreigners, Kuwait says it holds 10 percent of global crude oil reserves and pumps about 3.0 million barrels of oil per day. (AFP)

Kuwait’s provisional budget surplus surged 43 percent to 14.7 billion dinars ($52.2 billion) in the first seven months of the fiscal year, boosted by oil income, government data showed on Monday.

The figure compares with a 7.3 billion dinar ($26.0 billion) deficit projected in the budget for 2012-2013, which began on April 1. The surplus stood at $36.5 billion in the same period last fiscal year.

In the 2011-2012 fiscal year that ended on March 31, the OPEC member posted a record budget surplus of $47 billion on the back of an all-time high income of $107.5 billion. Oil income makes up about 95 percent of public revenues.

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